Teaching is really a grand pursuit, but grading...grading is a real turd. It's really where the self-discipline I learned in graduate school becomes truly useful. I've found that I'll drift up to the department secretary's office and ask her if she needs any help counting how much colored paper is left in the copier room. I'll actually organize my files or dust. I'll talk to anyone about anything to keep from having to grade this work.

Why?

Because I know what grade they deserve without looking at their work. I know what kind of effort they have put out to learn, and more often than not, they can work the angles with the numbers and slip through the system. And like Sam Waterston in an episode of Law and Order, I must watch them slip through the fingers of the system, thinking that this is something we all must endure in order for things to move forward at all.